This application particularly relates to graphical user interfaces and to 3-D icons.
User interfaces are used to access hierarchical storage systems. These hierarchical storage systems store files in a multi-level directory arrangement of folders. The existing user interfaces organize and display this hierarchical arrangement. FIG. 1, for example, illustrates a typical prior art “tree” control. This typical “tree” architecture depicts the hierarchical relationship between folders and sub-folders. Microsoft's WINDOWS® EXPLORER®, for example, utilizes these tree controls. A user “clicks” on the “+” or “−” to navigate within the hierarchical tree. As the user makes more and more input “clicks,” the user delves farther into the tree control to access the contents of sub-folders. Other known user interfaces depict files as a one-dimensional scrolling strip. Still other known user interfaces display the files as a two-dimensional scrolling window.
These known user interfaces, however, are all cumbersome to use. The common tree control depicted by Microsoft's WINDOWS® EXPLORER® requires multiple inputs to navigate within the control. The user must navigate to the end of a tree branch to see the contents of a folder. If the desired file is not located within this branch, the user must begin anew in another branch. The scrolling one- and two-dimensional depictions, additionally, do not permit the creation and the viewing of sub-folders. If a desired file is not seen within the scrolling user interface, the user must choose another directory location. These known user interfaces, then, require multiple inputs before a desired file is located. These known user interfaces all require one control to display the hierarchical arrangement of stored files, and another control to view or otherwise access the contents of a file. What is needed, however, is a user interface that minimizes the number of inputs a user must make to navigate the hierarchically-arranged folders and to select a desired file.